The Distillation

"However, where long-term data is available, it does point to systematic failures in drug policies".

Those risks [to drug use] include punishment by the justice system. However, there too the efficacy of policy is highly questionable. The Brookings Institution published an overview of global counter-narcotics policy in 2008 which compared three different approaches: “the punishment model” employed in the US, which uses incarceration to deter use; “the depenalization model” used in Italy and Spain, which keeps narcotics illegal but doesn’t criminalize personal use within established maximum amounts; and, finally, “the decriminalization model” used in the Netherlands, which allows cannabis sales for personal use. The Brookings analysis was most critical of the US punishment model where incarceration rates have exploded (from fewer than 50,000 people in 1980 to 210,200 in 2015) at huge cost to taxpayers despite the fact that few prisoners have access to any form of drug treatment.

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